Internship Series: The Campaign for Boston University

Andrea Lee
CAS’ 20 | International Relations
Telefund caller

CCD: Tell us about your work experience. What were your responsibilities?

Andrea: I worked as a caller at BU Telefund over the summer. As a caller I was responsible for calling BU alumni, updating their contact information to keep in touch with them, asking them about how they have been doing since they graduated and how their BU degrees helped them in their careers, and asking if they were interested in donating towards BU funds.

CCD: How did you get the position? What resources at BU or elsewhere did you use?

Andrea: I applied through the BU Telefund web page. I used the Center for Career Development online resources to guide me through building my resume.

CCD: What is one challenge that you encountered during your summer experience and how did you manage it?

Andrea: One of the most challenging parts of this job was having to deal with people who were not happy about getting a call from BU. Some of the people I called were really busy at the time or did not want to be called at all, but I was able to manage this by being patient, not taking things personally and respecting the person being called.

CCD: What was the best thing about the experience? What was the worst?

Andrea: I think that the best part of this experience was the environment students created at the office. There was always candy to keep us motivated, and we would celebrate whenever we reached our group goals. It was an overall happy environment. As I mentioned before, the most challenging and probably the worst part was having people be unhappy and be rude about being called.

CCD: What was the most memorable moment of your experience?

Andrea: I think that one of the best parts of the experience was the support we gave each other during the shifts. One of the moments I can remember was when a coworker called someone who did not understand English, so the supervisor asked if anyone spoke Spanish and another caller took the call. This made me realize that there are several skills that you can bring into your job or internship that might not have anything to do with your field of study.

CCD: What advice would you give to another student about making the most of an internship or job experience?

Andrea: I think that one of the most important things is to be open to new experiences and opportunities that come your way because you never know what you can learn from them and how they can prepare you for what you want to do in the future.